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Eastercon, April 2012 Schedule

I just booked to go to Olympus, the 2012 Eastercon at the Radisson Edwardian Hotel in Heathrow. In fairness, I think it’s the last convention I go to for a while. It takes place 6th-9th of April, over the Easter weekend.

On the Wednesday before the convention – April 4th – I will be at the book launch for anthology Pandemonium: Stories of the Smoke (containing my story “A Brief History of the Great Pubs of London”), at the Betsey Trotwood pub (56 Farringdon Road, EC1), 6:30pm. Click here for details and RSVPs.

What is the SF scene like outside English-speaking countries? Do they have their own thriving scene, or is it dominated by Anglophone SF from outside? Why does non-anglophone SF have such a small weight in the UK and US markets – is it down to the difficulty and cost of translations, or is there some other reason for this? Are the problems unique to SF, or present in all genres? And what can we do to change it?

Saturday, 5pm – room 12 (Tethworth) – panel on The war on terror (How ten years of conflict has shaped SF).

How has the ongoing War on Terror affected the past decade of SF? How have different works reacted to both the war itself, and the surrounding anti-terror laws?

Sunday, 6pm – Commonwealth room – the BSFA Award ceremony

China won’t be there but it looks like Adam and I can sit in the back gossiping while Chris Priest wins the award.

The stereotype of steampunk is the colonialist Victorian adventure full of gears and goggles, but modern steampunk goes beyond this to addresss issues of race and class. What steampunk works deal with other cultures and other times? How do they address colonialism and other socio-political issues that arise from steampunk works? Can you write the stereotype but subvert it from within?